CMR loves Father Corapi. Anytime I catch him speaking on EWTN I stop and listen and am always impressed and moved. That’s why when I did my morning web surfing and came upon a headline at New Advent saying Accused: Father John Corapi Placed on Administrative Leave I was stunned.

It seems a former employee has accused Fr. Corapi of all sorts of things from being a drug addict to “multiple sexual exploits” with several adult women.

Father Corapi, in a post on his website, seems pretty adamant that he’s innocent and is calling for everyone’s prayers. Here’s his full comment:

On Ash Wednesday I learned that a former employee sent a three-page letter to several bishops accusing me of everything from drug addiction to multiple sexual exploits with her and several other adult women. There seems to no longer be the need for a complaint to be deemed “credible” in order for Church authorities to pull the trigger on the Church’s procedure, which was in recent years crafted to respond to cases of the sexual abuse of minors. I am not accused of that, but it seems, once again, that they now don’t have to deem the complaint to be credible or not, and it is being applied broadly to respond to all complaints. I have been placed on “administrative leave” as the result of this.

I’ll certainly cooperate with the process, but personally believe that it is seriously flawed, and is tantamount to treating the priest as guilty “just in case”, then through the process determining if he is innocent. The resultant damage to the accused is immediate, irreparable, and serious, especially for someone like myself, since I am so well known. I am not alone in this assessment, as multiple canon lawyers and civil and criminal attorneys have stated publicly that the procedure does grave damage to the accused from the outset, regardless of rhetoric denying this, and has little regard for any form of meaningful due process.

All of the allegations in the complaint are false, and I ask you to pray for all concerned.